BPM in the Parliament

House of Commons – Official Protocol

Maiden speech by Mr Adam Deane to the House of Commons on the subject of Business Process Management

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Mr. Speaker: Order.

Mr. Speaker: My Lords and Members of the House of Commons, Her majesty the Queen has asked me to conduct a full and thorough investigation into the issue of parliament expenses. I have promised that the house will take the required measures and respond to the rising aspirations of the people of the United Kingdom; to ensure transparency of our expenses; and to regain the trust of the people.”

Mr. Deane: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. May I take the opportunity to thank the House for their cooperation in this delicate task of setting up a BPM solution to approve the parliament expenses.

(Heckle from one of the backbenchers): “Does ‘BPM’ stand for Bloody Parliamentary Mess?”

Mr. Speaker: Order. The hon. Gentleman knows that that is not a point of order.

Mr. Deane: On the point of order, Mr. Speaker, BPM stands for Business Process Management and refers to activities performed by businesses to optimize their business processes.
We are looking to implement a set of expense approval processes that will ensure a correct and formal procedure of reviewing and auditing expense claims by the house.

Robert Waters (Con): The details of my expenses were repeated in the local press and it obviously caused enormous concern to many of my constituents, as well as to myself. How will the system deal with these issues?

Mr. Deane: The audit trail of the approval is of utmost importance to the transparency of the process.
That said, the description of the expense can be immediately deleted from the system so as to reduce “clutter” in the system. I am sure the house can appreciate that the descriptions of the expense items are not needed for the approval decision task.

(Backbenchers): “Hear, Hear”

Mr. Speaker: Would you kindly explain to the house the new expense claim procedure that was agreed upon by the expense committee. The house will note that the discussions on this subject were hard and long. The new expense programme will need to meet people’s aspirations for better transparency, responsibility , and eliminating waste of public funds.

Mr. Deane: Thank you Mr. Speaker.
The process will require the member of parliament or their assistant to submit an expense through an internal website. The BPM system will automate the expense reimbursement request through a set of complex and sophisticated business rules.

Mr. Speaker: Would you kindly explain to the house the agreed business rules.

Mr. Deane: When an expense claim is submitted to “Process A”, the system will check which house the submitter belongs to.
If the expense is submitted by a member of the “House of Lords” – the system will automatically approve the expense. Any expense.
If the expense is submitted by a member of the “House of Commons” then it will go through a rigorous loop of approval, re-approvals, committees and subcommittee approvals.

(Murmurs from one of the backbenchers): That’s not fair!

Mr. Speaker: Order. Let the hon. Gentleman complete the explanation.

Mr. Deane: When an expense claim is submitted to “Process B”, the business rules are reversed.
If the expense is submitted by a member of the “House of Commons” – the system will automatically approve the expense.
If the expense is submitted by a member of the “House of Lords” then it will go through a rigorous loop of approvals.
As prearranged, You can decide which process to submit your expenses to.

(The House): Hear Hear!

Mr. Speaker: Truly remarkable. Cutting edge technology! What about the price of the system?

Mr. Deane: Oh, the system has already been paid for. I have submitted it as an expense when I was testing the system. It was automatically approved.

(The House): Well done!

John Mathews (Lab): If the system has already been paid for, why are we having this discussion at all?

Mr. Speaker: Let me answer that one. The hon. Gentleman must understand that there needs to be someone that has full access permissions to the system.
This will give him access to ALL of our expense details.
This is a delicate issue that I will be discussing with Mr. Deane later on. May I suggest we appoint Mr. Deane to be the sole person with access to these details. I will be discussing the technical details with him later on in a separate meeting.

(The House): Hear Hear!

Mr. Speaker: I would like to thank Mr. Deane for his time today to come before the house and help us solve this delicate issue of expenses. I am sure the house shares these feelings.

(The House): Hear Hear!

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I am not at liberty to disclose the discussions that were held in the later meeting.
Let’s just say that the next time you meet me, you may call me Lord Deane…